mounta

the sout

dicati

which soybeans are produced in commercial quantities is not in the section of most severe drought. Production of alfalfa meal will probably be reduced as a results in of short supplies of alfalfa hay, but stocks of old meal are fairly heavy. Hominyfeed production will probably be equal to or greater than last season because of the increased demand for brewers' grits. There is nothing to indicate any material reduction in output of gluten feed and meal, since production depends primarily upon the market situation for the main product of wet-process grinders. It is likely that more brewers' and distillers' grains will be' available this season and m pl about the same quantities of peanut feed and meal. Supplies of imported concentrates, such as copra meal and other oriental meals, will probably be available in as large quantities as last season.

THE CROP, FEED, AND LIVESTOCK SITUATION AS OF JUNE 1, BY STATES (As reported by State agricultural statisticians in special telegraphic reports, June 2 to 4)

ATLANTIC STATES

aim m

Dela

pasture

Mar

the ent

are W

Virg the

ring

y

ster

er

New England.-Serious drought damage so far appears to be confined to northern Vermont, partcularly in the Champlain Valley counties, which is the same area affected by the 1933 drought, where pastures are drying up rapidly, the hay crop is very light, and water supplies are short. Fair recovery may be made if rains are received soon, but recent rains have been of negligible benefit. Rain is reported to be needed generally over New England, although drought Pros damage to date has not been serious.

t

to

New York. With the exception of a few counties in the southeast, severe drought has been general, and most severe in western and northern areas. Pas-athe ture conditions are very serious and many dairymen are feeding hay, the supply Live of which is rapidly running out in most dairy sections. Streams are drying up in some localities, requiring the hauling of stock water. Winter killing and drye weather seriously injured hay meadows, especially new seedings of clover and re some alfalfa. A serious feed shortage is developing.

The summer peak in milk production is apparently reached now, 2 weeks earlier than usual. Some distress sales of cows are reported. Wheat is suffering, oats and barley stands are irregular, and corn germination is retarted. Dry ground is retarding the plowing and planting of corn, beans, potatoes, and cabbage. The Extension Service is urging the sowing of millet for emergency forage.

Many farmers have exhausted their credit for the purchase of additional feed and seed. A sharp reduction in milk production is probable. Pastures and meadows would be helped by rain soon, and other field and truck crops, except wheat and rye, might make full recovery with favorable weather. Frosts to May 27 damaged many fields of canning and shipping tomatoes and peas. Peaches are nearly a total loss, with most of the old trees dead. Apples are badly damaged, and many trees killed. Plums, sweet cherries, and quinces are about the same as apples. There will probably be a fair crop of sour cherries and a light crop of apples.

New Jersey. The agricultural situation, with the exception of fruit, is above average at the present time. Moisture has been ample for all needs. Rain and cold weather in April retarded farm work and the season is about 2 weeks late. Low temperatures during the past winter caused slightly more than usual winterkilling of wheat and rye. The condition of these crops is slightly below average but is better than last year on June 1. Oats are also slightly below the usual June 1 condition.

All grasslands are in excellent condition. They are fully up to last year and several points above average. Pastures are somewhat late, but their condition is slightly above average. Livestock are in good condition, and milk production is running above that of last June.

Potato and truck-crop conditions range from good to excellent. There is a fair crop of apples in prospect. Peaches and cherries are almost a complete failure. Strawberries are excellent. Other berries have suffered considerable winter damage.

Pennsylvania.-Drought is severe only northwest of the mountains, where water supplies are extremely short. Elsewhere conditions are quite favorable, but rain is needed soon on account of recent high temperatures. Field crops were planted late. The condition of winter grains is fair. Conditions of other

o

t

crops including hay and pasture, are generally good except northwest of the mountains. The fruit outlook is reported below that of a month ago, except in the southeastern commercial counties where improvement is reported. Present indications are that plant disease and insect damage are about average. The dairy situation is unsatisfactory. Feed and pastures are short. Producers claim milk prices are too low. Poultrymen are optimistic.

Delaware-Except that it has been too wet and somewhat unfavorable to corn planting, crop conditions in general are good. Development of hay and pastures has been retarded by cool, wet weather, but the condition of these has picked up in the past week. No feed or water shortage is in prospect.

Maryland.-Drought conditions are apparent only in the western countries. Conditions in the remainder of the State are favorable for hay and pastures. Wet weather was unfavorable for oats, and delayed the planting of corn over the entire State except in the western counties. According to present prospects, there will be no shortage of feed supplies or of water.

Virginia.-Crop prospects in the eastern half of the State are very good, but in the western half, especially the extreme southwest, there was very little rain during May, and crop growth is quite backward. Last week most sections had fairly good rains. Pastures range from very good in the eastern to poor in the western parts of the State. Early hay crops are good in the eastern counties, and clover and timothy prospects are excellent in the eastern half of the State but fair to poor in the western half. Considerable old hay still remains on farms in most districts.

Prospects for oats are fairly good except in the southwest. Corn planting has been delayed by wet weather in the east and by drought in the west. The condition of corn is now below average, but the crop will respond with favorable weather conditions.

Livestock is generally in good condition. Wells, springs, and streams are flowing normally, and water supplies are ample. The financial condition of the farmers generally has improved greatly over a year ago and farmers are feeling more optimistic than any time during the past 3 years.

West Virginia.-Rainfall is short of normal. During April there was 1 inch of rainfall and during May there were 2 inches. Crop conditions are serious but not critical as yet. Plateau and mountain farms are suffering the most from drought. Hay and pastures are suffering most in the western half of the State and the northern Panhandle, but the eastern Panhandle has had more rain. Cool weather and frosts up to a week ago have damaged growing crops in the northern Panhandle and in Preston County. Present food supplies are generally adequate for livestock, but if drought continues the food situation will become serious. Considerable wheat is heading on short straw, and corn and oats growth is practically at a standstill. Thousands of farm gardens and relief gardens in the country are suffering for lack of rain.

North Carolina.--Rainfall during the past week has relieved all soil needs. Grass in fields is gaining headway without chance to cultivate stiff soils. Pasturage has been fair but prospects are now excellent. Grains to be cut green and clover are fair but short in stalk and yield. Livestock are not suffering for feed or water. Cotton and tobacco stands are fair to good. The wheat crop is fair, but oats are poor. Crop cultivation is generally good, with prospects about usual. South Carolina.-The season is a week to 10 days late, and plants have been held back by cool May weather. There has been too much rain the past 10 days. Crops are in a fair state of cultivation, but weeds and grass will gain on them rapidly if present rainy weather continues. There has been some damage to crops from gales and heavy rains, but on the whole this is not serious..

There is an ample water supply, in fact, too much at present. Prospects are fair to good for feed crops and pasture. The crop situation, on the whole, is not encouraging, chiefly because excessive rain has interfered with farm work at a critical period. Early-harvested grain has already begun to show dairage in the field, and work with the remaining grain harvests will delay the cultivation of crops allowing grass to get a further start on the farmer.

Georgia. Late spring with cool temperatures and frequent rains has caused farm work and crop advancement to run about 10 days to 2 weeks behind usual for the State. There are any complaints of grassy fields, especially in the case of cotton. Rains are damaging small grains ready for harvest in southern and mid-State territory. The present and prospective feed supplies are generally fair to good, except in some local areas. Peach prospects are apparently good, except for local hail damage in several counties. The condition of pastures is good to excellent. Warn dry weather is badly needed for proper cultivation and growth of field crops.

May rains were abundant in most sections. Water supplies are ★ wax with few exceptions. Some damage was done by the heavy rains to staple Wisco ex on the lower lands and to truck crops, including celery, but the general icons Gondition of oats, hay, and pastures is above average. Corn carry-over is below average, but prospects for the new corn, peanuts, and feed crops in general are soporbed fairly good. The citrus drop is reported heavier than average, but a con good crop is still expected.

CORN BELT STATES

Ohio. The month of May was extremely dry and comparatively cool, with light frosts near the end of the month, and crops made very slow progress. Continued drought and high temperatures during the past week were very detrimental to all crops.

er of

ber, an

have b

Pastures are short in all parts of the State, but are especially poor in the south portion, where some hay meadows and wheat fields are being pastured. A very poor hay crop is in prospect. Alfalfa is only fair, clover and timothy are very the poor, most of the clover being only 6 to 8 inches high and ready to cut. Timothy is heading extremely short. Soybeans and sudan grass probably will be used to supplement other hays, but present moisture conditions are unfavorable for planting them. Stocks of old hay are quite low.

Stock-water supplies are shortest in the northeast and southern sections of the State, where creeks and springs are very low. Some farmers in southern counties are already hauling stock water. Oats prosperts are extremely unfavorable, with uriny poor stands, and growth to date is very short, some already heading only a few inches high. Many fields will be an entire failure without rain very soon. Corn is mostly planted, but with many poor stands, and considerable replanting; much of that latest planted will not germinate without rain. Considerable wheat is heading with both straw and heads short and needs rain to fill properly.

Indiana. High temperatures are intensifying the drought conditions in this State. Corn that was planted early is fine, but where planted late it has germinated unevenly and is making slow progress. Oats are very poor, because rainfall has been deficient since sowing. Wheat is very good in the southwest, but is poorer to the northward. It is beginning to ripen in the south. There will probably be less than an average yield.

Pastures are grazed closely everywhere. They are still making growth in the southern third of the State but are at a standstill elsewhere, except in scattered spots. Alfalfa and clover hay are rather short, particularly in the northern third of State. Cutting is under way in the southern third. Grass hays are poor and the hay carry-over is light. Much new-sown clover is killed.

Livestock is in fair condition, but milk flow and animal growth is being limited by the pasture shortage. A few wells are failing in some localities. With normal rains in June, Indiana can produce ample corn, soybeans, and roughage.

Illinois. Illinois pastures are furnishing little or no feed except in scattered southern area. Farmers are turning stock into the hayfields and a few are begining to pasture oats. Alfalfa is making a fair yield, but clover and timothy are Very short. Supplies of old hay are very short, owing to early feeding last fall and prolonged feeding this spring. Heavy rains are necessary if pastures are to furnish much feed from now on, and hay, with the exception of alfalfa, is probably beyond substantial recovery. Sudan and other grass seeds for emergency hay and pasture are scarce, expensive, and liable to chinch-bug injury. Farmers plan to plant a large acreage of soybeans for hay, if rain comes in June. The soy d supply is believed to be sufficient, but is poorly distributed. Most of the ats are beyond substantial recovery, but the crop in the north would still benefit from rains now because not so far developed. Winter wheat is firing. The fill is below average but the stand is good. Corn stands are spotted, but many spotions have excellent stands and there is still time to replant. Combined drought, chinch-bug injury, and short, prospective hay supplies are causing a few farmers to plow under corn and oats and to plant soybeans. Livestock is in fair Condition and just beginning to show the effect of short pastures. The water supply situation is not acute, although scattered farms are hauling water for

Michigan. Crops have been retarded by the late spring and dry weather, but the situation did not become critical until the last few days. High temperatures since May 31 are causing rapid decline in crop conditions in all parts of State. Hay supplies are practically cleaned up, clover and timothy and first cuttings of altalia are very short. There are increased plantings of supplementary hay rops. The feed shortage is prospective rather than immediate. Livestock is in fair condition, except in northern areas where feed supplies were short last winter.

Wisconsin.-A succession of drought years has developed acute conditions in Wisconsin crops. Conditions are poor in the entire State with exception of one tier of counties along the northern border, in parts of counties adjacent to this tier, and in a strip of varying width along Lake Michigan. Conditions in eastern Wisconsin are relatively good in an area 75 miles wide at some points and narrower at others.

The most serious drought conditions appear in an area beginning with the northwest and west-central districts in a region extending from Pepin to Burnett Counties and southeastward into the central sand plains of the central district and portions of the Colby silt-loam area in the north-central district. All central and western Wisconsin is greatly deficient in moisture, though local showers have brought relief in spots. There are some very dry areas in counties bordering on Illinois. This is the fifth year of moisture deficiency in northern and central Wisconsin. In some areas it is the sixth dry year. The average precipitation in the above area for 1932 and 1933 was about 17 percent below normal. first 4 months of 1934 this area averaged about one-third below normal precipitation. The very low rainfall during May brings the moisture deficit to the most critical point in the history of the counties involved. Hot dry weather the past week has been particularly serious in reducing crop prospects.

The

Pasture conditions are so much below any previous records that comparisons are difficult. The feed supply last year, except for corn, was exceedingly short and hay supplies have been below normal since 1930. The low feed reserves, the poqr crop outlook, and the relatively large livestock population may bring widespread need for disposing of animals.

Minnesota. The seriously dry area of this State is in the west-central district and extends east to the Twin Cities. However, during the past month, with high temperatures and little or no rainfall, this area has widened out to the southward to such an extent that in the lower two-thirds of the State present and future prospects for hay and pastures indicate a serious situation. Most southern counties have plenty of old corn, but the low general crop conditions in these counties present a grave problem. Conditions in the northern third of the State are far below average but not as serious as in the rest of the State. Rain within the next week followed by fairly cool weather, would revive spring grains sufficiently to prevent a crop failure. There has been no pronounced complaint of a water shortage as yet.

Iowa. Pasture, hay, and small-grain crop prospects on June 1 were quite uniformly the lowest on record for the entire State. Livestock is practically without pasture except in a few small areas. The forage supply is most seriously lacking in the Missouri River counties including nearly all of the west-central and southwestern portion of the State. Similar, but less serious, conditions prevail in the central, north-central, northeastern and east-central sections. The stockwater supply is a matter of concern in some localities, but is not lacking generally. The oats crop has a light stand and is very weedy. A large percentage of the oats acreage in the State will not be harvested for grain, because of damage from drought and chinch bugs and use for grazing. There is no material supply of oats on farms, and because of the poor quality of the seed harvested last year there is likely to be a serious shortage of oats seed in this State next spring.

Winter wheat in the major producing counties was caught by heat at the beginning of bloom, and yield prospects are seriously reduced. Corn, which germinated in moist dirt and which is mostly on fall plowing, is making favorable growth. Much spring-plowed corn land shows heavy loss because of failure of seed to germinate. Much of the corn acreage in the northwest and western counties has not yet germinated. However, there is still time for replanting. Chinch bugs are now working in corn in the southern tier of counties. Some grass hopper damage is certain in the west-central counties.

Missouri.-All crops are suffering from drought. Corn has been hurt least of all, but has been slowed up in the north third of the State and in the east. Wheat made good progress until last week when heat and drought prevented proper filling and caused premature ripening. Chinch bugs are about the worst ever known, killing many fields of wheat in the north section, and are going now to young corn.

Ponds, creeks, springs, and wells are drying up that were never dry before. There is extreme shortage of subsoil moisture. Oats, with the exception of the earliest seedlings, look like failure from a grain standpoint in a number of counties. In a large part of the State, especially in the north, hay prospect is the poorest in a long time. Short rainfall in April and May will make for light yields. Many

timothy and old meadows are hardly worth cutting. Red clover is short. With the spring seeding of the last few years largely killed out, hay acreage will be smaller than usual.

It app

ill hav

ast 90,

raw in

Kans

the nort

per acre

the area

Pastures have been short on moisture all spring and are daily receding. Stock must soon go on feed. Milk cows are being fed grain in some counties, because of short pastures. Potatoes and gardens are suffering greatly. The showers on Saturday night were of local character and helped but little. North Dakota. The drought continues. The light showers during the past week in scattered localities have done little to alleviate conditions. In the State al western two-thirds of the State crops are practically gone. The valley area and the could still show a great recovery if rains come in time. The rain last night and far (June 3) in the Fargo area will help to carry crops a little longer, but was too crop. light to aid pastures and meadows much. This rain was general, except for the Streage Williston area, but was light. Pasture and range feed in the southwest are about Wat gone, except in low places. In fact, range pastures have not greened up at all in northe many places. Stock generally are grazing on meadows and along roads. This will greatly reduce the available hay acreage and supplies for next winter. Sup-of plementary hay acreage will have to be greatly increased to meet average require ments. Reports of cattle losses are increasing. Many herds are in very thin flesh, even in the eastern area. Very little dry feed is left. General rains, even within the next week, would not bring pastures along fast enough to save thin inless herds. If drought continues, cattle will be grazed on cropped fields until marketed, still further reducing future grain supplies. Water supply for human use, and The a for stock is becoming increasingly less. This is particularly true in the western two-thirds of the State.

of a

Alfalfa

less

shorta

expect

Count

plant

Some

ea

Co

Whe

Field

South Dakota.-The State is experiencing the worst crop failure since the State was opened for settlement. If unusually favorable conditions prevail after this date, it is possible that most counties in the eastern two tiers and portions few other counties could harvest a small fraction of an average small grain crop. The driest area lies in the northwest and north-central parts of the State, which and have received very little precipitation in the past 12 months. In the drier In districts all small grains are a complete failure and all farming operations have stopped, including corn planting. Many thousands of acres have never been seeded this year to small grains or plowed for corn on account of dry soil. PasPota tures are bare in most localities, and in the driest areas they have never greened up this spring.

Tan

Will

ishi

mor

Dat

Grain fields, including rye for grain, are being pastured; also pasturing along abo roadsides. Russian thistles are growing in abandoned fields. In drier areas even thistles are a poor crop. A recent special survey indicated a prospective shortage of feed and water early in June that would force liquidation of 67 percent of the cattle in the State, ranging from 54 percent in the southeastern part of the State to about 75 percent in the central and north-central districts. Even a material discounting of these figures would indicate a prospective liquidation of at least 1,000,000 head of cattle. There were some reports of a prospective liquidation of 55 percent of the sheep and 65 percent of the hogs. Livestock losses have been light to date but are increasing rapidly on account of the shortage of feed and/or stock water.

Nebraska. Temperatures are lower and showers have occurred throughout most of the State. The sandhill area (except where overstocked) and most of the Panhandle counties have considerable pasturage. Elsewhere native-grass and tame-grass pastures are bare and prospects for feed from such pastures before autumn are very poor, since growth is made in April, May, and June and they seldom more than hold their own during July and Autust even with normal rainfall. If, however, there is more than usual rain during the summer, these pastures can furnish considerable feed later.

Tame-hay meadows are extremely poor and wild hay is almost certain to be short because of slight growth during April and May. It will be necessary to have much more than the usual rain from now on to produce even a fair crop. Forage crops, with few exceptions, have not started, so that the chances for feed from this source for some time are very slight. Much of the wheat has been pastured and farmers are now starting to pasture the oats. With a dry subsoil and low vitality of alfalfa, a good second crop cannot be expected even with rain, but good rains could make a good third crop. Sweet-clover pastures are generally very good, but there are only 200,000 acres in the State. With plenty of rain from now on, a good corn crop could be made and also an abundance of rough forage.

D

a